Should I drop this freelance project?

[Shane Ross]

Get out the best way you can. You have leverage by having the cut and footage…use that to get paid the original amount. Cut your loses, take this as a lesson learned and move on. You’ll be hard pressed to get more from them. This is from my personal experience.

Forget about credit on the project. Get out.

Wait for others to chime in with their thoughts…see if the concur or have other suggestions. best to get out as clean as possible, and get paid.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Scott Carnegie]

Take the money, hand over the files and walk away.

http://www.MediaCircus.TV
Media Production Services
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

[Eric Kim]

My parents aren’t in this field but basically they are saying I should suck it up and just keep doing the project until it is finished.
My biggest concern is, the project can run for an additional several weeks, maybe even a month.
I don’t want to brush my parents’ opinion off simply because they have no experience in the field, but right now, I’m really confused.

[Grant Wilber]

Don’t worry about credit. Getting ‘credit’ is usually worthless with jobs like these.

I would be upfront with them about how you haven’t gotten any money and would like to in order to continue editing. Lie and tell them you got rent due or another paying company has job for you so they are gonna get priority. Hopefully they give you something. Then tell them they get one more revision and then you’ll need to re-negotiate the project. The last revision I’d give them a watermark or SD version maybe?

But this sounds like a huge pain, take what you can and get out. The experience you’ve learned from this project is probably more valuable then whatever you make anyway.

[Tom Sefton]

You don’t owe these people a finished product, you owe them an assembly edit. Deliver that with watermarks and ask for immediate payment.

It’s up to you whether you finish the job for free or for whatever extra cash you can get, but I would suggest walking away. Do not give them your edited footage without watermarks until you have been paid and the cheque has cleared and if they ask you to finish, tell them you want a basic contract putting in place for payment versus time.

The people in charge of this project will happily take advantage of you as long as you let them. Don’t!

[Bill Davis]

My 2 cents.

It seems to me there were three things you were trying to get by taking on this project.

A. Videomaking Experience
B. Business Experience
C. Money

So lets look at each.

You’ve done pretty well accomplishing A – at least in terms of having produced work that’s satisfied a customer who’s seen your “in progress” work. By working on this thing, you’ve learned more about your software and increased your skill level. Since the project is in mid stream – you haven’t learned FULLY how to complete and deliver a finished project, but that’s up to you to set as a value benchmark. So well done in A.

Like it or not, you’re getting a decent education in B. Mostly how hard it is to qualify clients. These clients appear to be one of two types. Either they are classic grinders who know what it takes to deliver this kind of work and are just messing with you to extract the most value they possibly can with as little effort as they possibly can (other than to allow you to show up and show them the results of YOUR efforts – without putting any skin in the game from their side)… OR they are just inexperienced and clueless and their project is largely pie in the sky “cool, we found somebody to make us a cheap video to support our unrealistic, insupportable business plans” types. The world is FULL of both kinds of “producers” who work underneath the honest professionals all of whom have realistic expectations of what it takes to make solid videos that drive business results and understand that only by compensating people for their time, can a pro ever hope to develop relationships with competent folks that they can depend on -over time – to work with them on profitable future projects.

Both A and B are flexible and optional. In that while you’re learning, you can fudge either and keep progressing from “starter” team membership up to better teams.

But C? Ah C. C is the inflexible MUST HAVE in order to keep going. If you can’t get people to put MONEY on the line for results, projects will NEVER EVER be completed and you will STOP learning.

So you have to have ONE clear focus when you talk to them next.

Get a committment for MONEY from them. Period. Money NOW. And every additional bit of work has to be contingent on that happening. To a degree, how much and how soon is flexible and totally up to you. But you simply can’t do another single thing or take another meeting with them unless they agree to start paying for it. Period. Full stop. If you’re happy taking a single $100 bill so that you can buy yourself and your best friend a nice dinner with the $80 bucks after taxes that you can spend – and that balances for you to keep involved in this project to keep learning – then fine. The AMOUNT and timing is up to you. But the FACT of getting paid is NOT up for grabs.

They have to start pushing at least some money to you NOW – or you’re being abused.
(and next time, make sure the point where every client has money in the game moves UP farther in your work process.

That’s how it work.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Mark Suszko]

Eric. You have managed to do every last wrong thing possible all in your first job; you may want to do a George Kostanza and start doing the opposite of whatever your initial instinct is:-)

However.

This is not a career-making or career-ending project. Ask for the money that was initially promised, today, in cash… and do no more work until you get it. They own the raw materials, and you must surrender those if asked, but the project file is your intellectual property, I would always resist giving those up, just give them the raw footage and a copy of your current master, preferably watermarked with time code.

The true cost of what you did is all tied up in the project file. Anybody else would have to start cutting more or less from scratch without that project file, or settle for small shortenings of the master you’ve already generated. That file represents every hour of creative decision making and applied skill you put into the work.

Now I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. But I know from personal small claims court experience and watching “The Paper Chase” that a contract is not valid if you don’t have an agreement on the terms and you never got consideration (money or physical material goods) in exchange for your contribution, especially a mere verbal agreement. So don’t feel bound to just roll over and hand over your project files if they have not paid a cent. Let them yell. Let them threaten. If you got paid a few bucks but not the full amount, the issue is much less clear, ask a lawyer then.

Start drawing up a deal memo for continuing any more work, list the terms and the price an the schedule for getting paid, usually in progress payments of thirds, paid at each of three major landmarks of the project. You don’t start without a third up front as a deposit, and you don’t do more work until the previous third has been paid. Have the deal memo notarized before you begin more work.

Thanks for posting your story; it will be an object lesson to all that follow you, at least. Good luck, don’t blink, and while waiting them out, go find and read the “Grinders” article by Ron Lindeboom, here on the COW.

[Eric Kim]

Thanks for everybody’s comments. I really really appreciate it. So, I had a talk with the director/producer about this. Let’s just say he’s not happy. Bridge is most likely burned, which is the most unfortunate thing about this whole thing. But, things are still in the talks. I keep you guys updated.

[Mark Suszko]

Be resolute. You are only asking for what you’ve already earned. The project file/ master is your only real leverage here so guard it with your life.

In any negotiation, the other guy has to believe you are willing to walk away, rather than accept a bad deal. If he doesn’t believe it – if YOU don’t believe it by caving right away… they own you. Always.

Let them yell. The louder they yell, the quieter you repeat your demands. Loudness equals them losing control. You stay in control, use only polite language. They “fire” you, you don’t have to just accept it, since you don’t really have a contract in the first place….

Just keep showing up until you get your money, but simply don’t do any more work on it until then. They are going to test your resolve, which they believe is weak, based on your performance up to now. They think you are a rube, a bumpkin. But you got wise. Even if you decide to cave, give yourself an extra day before you announce it. You may find that after all the bluster, they magically cut you a check and act like everybody is all friends again.

Don’t believe it.

As soon as they can arrange it, they are going to get rid of you. Get used to the idea. Think of it as the bittersweet first crush in grade school that can never go anywhere. You’ll love again some day.

Go, cash the check first. Then get back to work. But only after you have hashed out a deal memo and signed it using a notary public. It should have objective language, actual numbers, provable items. Not subjective statements which may be a matter of opinion. There needs for example to be a limit on re-edits before additional new agreements and fees happen. Actual deadline dates for key milestones. Rates and pay dates.

You may get fed the line that you’ll only get paid after they get paid, and nobody gets paid until the edit is done. Ask yourself if you can buy groceries this way. No, you can’t. if they can’t pay, there really is no project, just a dream. If you’re going to do charity work, know that it IS charity work, but you are a pro, and pros, by definition, get paid. QED.

[Enrique Shorts]

I sincerely suggest that you complete the entire project. You might hate doing it, but this will become a good habit for you. Also, dumping a live project is unprofessional and might earn you a bad reputation. This might not matter now, but might affect you in future.

Do ask for some kind of deposit in case you are going to continue.

International media planning